All over

All Camp
These guys kept us fed - who will next year?
Our counselors.
Our translators
Our funniest camper - X

All Staff photo
Our graduates - next year they'll be too old. One asked, "How come no English Camp for 18-year-olds?" That is a very good question!
The now annual traditional auction of "stuff" paid for by "Teekets" earned all week long.
Here I got to share the story of one of my Iraqi refugee contacts in Jordan who once believedGod could not exist and who now knows that He does - the topic, "What is real?"

Well, I've not updated in a few days. This is largely due to the sheer busyness and fatigue of the last few days of any given English Camp. There's the basics of camp itself - all the closing activities (talent shows, banquets, bonfires, etc) midst the point of greatest community (meaning campers and staff alike have lost all ability to refrain from acting crazy! and valuable spiritual milestones are often reached). Then there are the practical bits - paperwork, pick-ups and drop-offs, cleaning, lots more cleaning, then some cleaning, the staff trip to Freiburg (dinner at Martin's Brau - if you're ever in Freiburg, it's a great place), materials and linens returned to base, some more cleaning. The emotional toll of balancing relief that camp is over with saying goodbye to those staff and campers who have been part of your life for the past 216-314 hours during an intensive time is also exhausting.

Then you have the episodes that come from nowhere - the camper mentioned earlier returned to camp after one ambulance ride and day in the hospital only to repeat the trip the following day (camp's last full day). Pray that God would use this in his life. The drama of it all did help focus camp in important and healthy ways.

But is is so worth it. Staff and campers alike leave changed. God has been at work. The gospel was delivered over nine nights and days to 100 campers. One of our third year campers - a guy who has got it rough family wise, who came to camp 3 years ago hating the idea of a "religious" camp, who fell in love with the love he felt at camp (he gave testimony before this next fact for longer than the evening message took), finally professed to giving his life to Christ (as did others). Pray for this "J" and for another "J" who thought she wasn't good enough for God and the others who came to faith - pray that God would make it so real in their lives and that churches could be found for them and so many of our other campers without good church homes.

Like I said - It is so worth all the time and money and hard work. Pray for us that we could recover to face the school year ready. We're weekending near Grenoble, France to attend a wedding and staff conferences start next week (well, actually they started this week but for self-preservation and with permission, I'm missing most of those).

Thanks to all who've read these and prayed for, given to, or served at (Did I mention the incredible staff we had?) English Camp Wittlingen (or any of the other camps) this year.